James P. Byrd
Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research
Assistant Professor of American Religious History
Fellow in the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture

B.A., Gardner-Webb (1988)
M.Div., Duke (1991)
M.A., Ph.D., Vanderbilt (1997, 1999)

james.p.byrd@vanderbilt.edu
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

James Byrd's research interests center on theology and biblical interpretation in American history, religion and war, and the history of Baptists in America. His course offerings include:

• Religion and War in American History
• History and Polity in the Baptist Tradition
• Theology in America, 1630-1865
• The Puritan Movement in New England
• The Theology of Jonathan Edwards

His publications include:

• The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible (Mercer University Press, 2002)
• a chapter in Vanderbilt Divinity School: Education, Contest, and Change (Vanderbilt University Press, 2001) that examines theological education at Vanderbilt, 1915-1960
• "Christianity in the United States," and other articles in the Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

He is writing two books: a study of the Bible in relation to colonial American wars and Jonathan Edwards for Armchair Theologians, under contract with Westminster John Knox Press. In addition, he is collaborating with two other scholars on a modern edition of two important texts by influential Baptist historian Morgan Edwards: Materials Towards A History of the Baptists and Customs of Primitive Churches.

> James Byrd's website